


Other Bitties

by lacewing



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Grief and depression, Other, Panic Attacks, Suggestions Welcomed, Will add more as needed - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 14:50:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9766589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lacewing/pseuds/lacewing
Summary: From a suggestion for other monster bitties and types. This will be another collection of shorts. Suggestions welcomed. Will add to when inspired or suggestion.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Grief leads to darkness, but a sparkle of starlight can bring second chances.

Twinkle Bitty Star

-0-

Dark, darker and yet darker still. My world contained nothing. Vaguely I was aware of others. The ones like me, who watched, not sure what to do about my silence, but I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t break out of the darkness that slowly engulfed my entire being.  
It felt like I was Falling, dying. 

I was vaguely aware of the others, only in that I saw their Souls. Saw those glimmers of colors and swirls of potential. Some tried to speak to me, but it was like hearing an echo at the end of a long tunnel. I was taken somewhere quiet. Dark. Now there existed nothing but the endless nothingness past the stars. 

Then like a sudden splash of a supernova, a Soul I couldn’t ignore. So deeply purple it seemed like the darkness of the void that consumed my being, but it was netted in a green so bright it glimmered like sun on pools of water and was cracked though, broken. The Soul was broken, hurting, but each cut was filled with golden starlight. 

It was such an interesting Soul, and for the first time I could hear a voice. I became aware. It was as if the Soul reached over to me and began to remove the darkness around my vision blocking everything from affecting me. 

I saw a hand, gently laid down next to me, inviting, the words I could hear were comforting, full of such love. Such pain, such… empathy, compassion. 

I wasn’t sure why, or how, but I moved, hands reaching out towards that palm, find myself enveloped in warmth. Movement, then I was held against warmth and softness, a voice cooing to me. Understanding, love, acceptance. It didn’t matter what the words were, the feeling behind them wrapped around my Soul like a blanket and chased away the darkness. Held so close to that wonderful accepting Soul. 

And I wept. I wept such a broken heart against the warmth who rumbled soft words and songs, rocking me like an infant. The warmth was without judgment, encouraging me to release everything that had smothered my Soul. Offering new life. For us both.

-0-

Suzanna really had not wanted to be here. She thought they were going to the movies, then maybe the mall. But one of those new ‘bitty adoption’ centers had sprung up near the theater and her friends decided to make a stop to coo at the cuties. 

Pulling on one of her dark curls Sue sighed, she really disliked crowds, and this place was crowded. Of course it would be the first week it was opened. There was another adoption center but it was in the next town over. One of the ‘rich man’s’ districts that people like Sue and her friends seldom visited. She was staring at a display of outfits (dear lord almighty, the prices were insane!) for ‘sansy’ styled bitties. 

Whatever those were. 

Sue had seen bitties of course, they came in all sorts of shapes and sizes. She read on a webpage that they seemed to have been formed as a sort of side effect from several years ago when the Barriers around the various monster prisons had gone down freeing monsters out upon the world. Something about all that extra magic needing to find new balance so, it created new lives. 

There was a lot of complicated stuff about Souls (including several tests of ‘what kind of Soul do you have?’) and how the bitties were some sort of ‘imprinting’ upon strong magical sources and well, she sort of stopped paying attention admittedly. 

Sue did get that the Monster community were the ones that decided to open up these adoption centers, to keep people from trying to turn the little creatures into novelty pets. They were sentient beings but ones that needed to be taken care of, or wanted to be anyway. 

Suzanna didn’t really get it, but she listened to her friends talk to one of the center attendants (a rather elegant looking bird monster. With little flames around the tips of her feathers as her wings flicked out as she talked.) and where finding out what it took to be allowed adoption. Seemed some forms to fill out, a personality test to take. Then of course one of the bitties needed to be willing to be adopted.   
Sue shoved her hands into her pockets and kept her head down while her friends got excited and wanted to fill out forms right away. 

Someone bumped into Sue and the girl felt panic rise in her chest. Her friends were in front of her. All stopped and blocking the way as they talked to the bird Monster. Someone passed over beside her as they maneuvered around the group of girls. Turning slightly she was aware of someone behind her looking at another display. Too many people, trapped... trapped... she zipped herself down the nearest clear isle, she needed an escape and saw a doorway, she was through the other side of it before thinking if it was a good idea. 

The world was narrowed to nothing but finding a way out, away from the crowds, the noise, the almost hospital disinfected store smell. The lights were too bright, all the colors bled into a blurred wash. Every sound was too loud and yet blended into a confused medley she couldn’t pick a single voice in. Like a background track in a movie. She hit the door running and didn’t know what she would do if it was locked. 

It wasn’t locked, or at least it opened easily under her hand. On the other side was quiet. It felt cooler, and a dimly lit. She shifted away from the doorway and put her back to a wall, sliding down to the floor and tucking her head into her knees. She had been mentally prepared for the movies, not for novelty pet stores on opening day! 

Slowly her breathing calmed, her heart rate lowered and she looked around. The world slowly coming into focus again. The room was empty, but looked like some sort of medical wing. Perhaps for any injured bitties who came in? 

She heard a weird sound, like… a pilot light refusing to start. Frowning she got up slowly sniffing tentatively, was there a gas leak or something? She her eyes scanned the dim room she located a tank on a table. Something about it seemed, off. It was half covered by a cloth and as she neared she saw the briefest flare, like an ember spitting in a bed of coals. 

Sue crouched down and looked inside, in the back huddled against the wall looked at first like a lump of coal. Then it moved. 

Slow, sluggish, pained. She felt something inside her clench painfully at the sight before she was lifting the cover from the tank and slowly reaching in. Trying not to scare the little one inside. She held her hand, and spoke, softly. Gentle words that felt right anyway. Encouraging the little one who slowly uncurled and looked up at her. With eyes that burned like dim embers. Then it came to her hand, curling in tightly against her palm as if seeking warmth and comfort. 

Warm, but one that seemed to be losing its heat. It was a bitty, but not a type she readily recognized. The little thing looked ashen, black. She found herself drawing it towards herself. Sitting down on the floor, her back to the wall behind her, surrounded by extra boxes and a few random things that got set back in this room. 

Was it sick? No, this didn’t feel like illness. There was something just so tragically sad about this creature, lost, hurting. 

It felt like her on a bad day. 

She rocked the little thing and found herself singing to it. All the songs that sometimes helped her feel better. It was making odd crackling sounds, little flicks of flame cracking through that odd blackness. Sue started to realize it wept, which made her pull it closer to herself. A form barely big as a kitten. Fitted snugly in her palms, and she kept humming soft songs and encouragement. 

“Please don’t die.” She whispered. 

-0-

A group of girls were on their phones and seemed to have an air of worried and irritated. “Did anyone see which way she went?” one of the girls asked.

“She’s not in the car, and I don’t see her outside.” One of the group said.

“She’s not in the bathroom.” Another one half trotted down the aisle. 

“Can I help you?” the firebird asked the humans. Ms Lori had helped them when they first came in, bright eyed and curious. All looking hopeful that perhaps they could adopt in the future. 

With the increasing interest in Bitties, a standard rose up for adoption screenings after abuse cases began taking an increase.  
But the number of Bitties kept increasing as well. There were not enough monsters who could take care of them, and the bitties had particular needs, not just for care, but magic. They formed around the remnant of the barriers, in increasing numbers. Eventually they would stop as the barriers residue power faded, but in meant they currently had hundreds of thousands of these things and no way to protect nor care for them all. 

Monster scientists found that all humans had contained potential for magic, and long as that potential existed it seemed to be enough for the bitties. But not all humans were nice, nor caring. There was of course a black market for bitties which the monsters worked with law enforcement to put a stop to. 

The Adoption centers were part of the answer. The bitties WANTED human (and monster) caretakers. It wasn’t just for companionship it was necessity. Without the bonds they formed with their caregivers they would die in a few short years, especially if they left regions of concentrated magics like the Undergrounds and other barrier fields. 

They formed themselves into types, apparently resembling Boss monsters most often, but there were others that formed as well. Some even looked human. 

So the Monsters came up with the adoption centers. It served multiple purposes, the sales of snacks, clothing, bitty sized furniture and things they could interact with fed money not just into the study and protection of the bitties, but into the monster community as they won their own rights around the world. 

The Bitties themselves did wonders for helping the monsters in convincing humans that they were not the boogeymen under their beds. It was difficult for humans to continue to disregard monsters when they had little voices on their shoulders telling them how great monsters were. 

But as bitties increased in numbers and humanity grew use to them and monsters, the humans who showed their true inner darkness began to show, fighting rings, torture, neglect and even various forms of abuse cases began to show up. So the adoption centers began screening potential Adoption Applicants. A test of sorts of formed. Weeding out the obvious abusers from those humans who would be able to form real and lasting bonds with the bitties. 

These girls had been Lori’s most recent applicants. She would send off their tests of course, but they all seemed like nice humans with clean souls. Every adoption center had a monster like Lori working at it. Her job wasn’t just to answer questions and take care of the bitties. It was part of the screening process. She was able to Judge human souls and look for signs that they would be unfit bitty adopters. The paper forms they filled out were for the most part a formality. It was Lori would be making the final call on any and all adoptions at this facility.   
Lori shook her feathers, bringing herself back to the present and the fact that she had several very panicked humans looking for a missing party member. She had a recollection of a very quiet dark skinned human who had been keeping back from everyone. Who had kept her head down and didn’t seem all that interested in the adoption as the other humans had been, so Lori had admittedly put her out of her mind.

She should have kept a closer eye on her it seemed. 

“Our friend, Suzanna has a panic disorder.” One of the girls said. Rubbing her face in frustration “It didn’t seem all that crowded here!” she said to her friends. 

One of the other girls was trying to make a phone call and hung up her cell in frustration “She’s not answering. Maybe she just went home?”  
“Seriously? You think Sue would ride the bus willingly? With all those strangers?” the third girl said throwing up her hands. 

“Calm down.” Lori told the other humans, waving her wings a bit in a way she noticed tended to just entrance most people who would watch the false flames sparkle off her wings. “Now there are places in the store she might still be, so just stay here and I will get the other employees to help search.”

“She tends towards dark quiet places when she panics.” The first girl said and Lori nodded. 

The bird monster left the girls. Getting the attention of some of the other employees “We have a missing human, possibly in the store still. Apparently she has a disorder that makes her try and hide.”

The cat monster she spoke to nodded “I’ll get the word around, if there is a human hiding in the store we’ll find them.” 

“Try not to scare her worse,” Lori cautioned. A frightened human could spell bad things for a monster’s health. Lori went back to the last place she recalled seeing the dark human. Looking around past a display for sansy sized clothing she spotted one of the employee only rooms. She frowned slightly, it should be locked but what if?

Walking towards it she reached out, the claw in her wings hooking the latch and the door swung open. She sighed in mild frustration, the door should have been locked! 

This room had a few overstock supplies kept out of the way as well as a few emergency medical supplies. 

Currently also held a dying bitty. 

Bitties needed the bonds they formed with other creatures, needed that magic to be able to live for longer than a few short years, but it also meant that once they formed a tight enough bond, they often did not survive their bonded if they were abandoned or if their caregiver passed away. 

Before officially opening they had gotten a call from the local retirement home. One of their elderly clients had passed away, and their bitty had still breathed at the time but had not been doing so well. 

There was nothing they could do, so they set the little grillbitty up to let him be comfortable. 

She could hear a voice, singing softly. Something sad and heartbreaking in the words but the same time there was a sort of Hope…

_“When this is no more, the moon is all we’ll see. I’ll ask you to fly away with me. And when the stars they all fall down, they empty from the sky. I don’t mind, for if you’re with me, then everything’s alright.”_

Lori tilted her head and she could see a light, dimly glowing from further into the room. Stepping softly as the gently sung words seemed to reach through to the Monster’s very Soul. She walked around a few boxes of extra boxes and ended up feeling her wings coming up to cover her beak. When last she saw the little grillbitty she gave him maybe half a day, he had clearly Fallen. His flames gone, the heat of the tiny elemental dying. He’d looked only so much like a piece of ashy coal. 

Now? There was a golden warm starlit glow that the dark skinned human cuddled against her chest. Soothing the gentle bitty as she sung to him as if to a small child just woken from a nightmare. Alive? He was alive, and Lori could barely believe her eyes. She came over kneeling down near the human as her song ended and the woman blinked at the monster before drawing back a little.

“I’m sorry, but... he seemed so cold... and I just... I was avoiding the crowds…” 

Lori shook her head, she looked at the human’s soul and Judged her.

And found so much kindness, there was heartache there, one that cut deep into her and put her body into a constant fight or flight. It must be exhausting for her. 

But her Soul had recognized one who’s Soul hurt just as much and she had not drawn away from him, instead had reached out, whole heartedly sharing what little light remained in her own being. 

Lori couldn’t think of anyone more suited to be a caregiver for a bitty. She brought a life back from the brink of death with nothing but the truest compassion. 

“Your friends are looking for you.” She said instead.

The girl blinked deep brown eyes and looked down at the sleeping glowing piece of starlight she held, his flames shimmering as she shifted a little “I guess, you will want him back then.” She said starting to offer the bitty back to the monster.

Lori reached out, resting her feathers gently over the human’s hands and pressed the bitty back towards her. She seemed confused, but Lori gave her a bright smile “You two are already bonded, I couldn’t separate you now. He was here, because his prior Caregiver died. They had been very close as he was following his human into death until you came. You’ve offered him a new reason to live and I can’t take that from him again.”

The human blinked at her and then down at the precious life she held in her hands “but I-I... Isn’t there... paperwork? Fees? I don’t have any-”

“This is a special case.” Lori said breaking into the building panic she saw in the human’s gaze “There are special cases where I as the Manager of this Adoption Center can alter or even go around the rules. And this I would call a very special case and one where I am more than happy to shift the rules for both your sakes.” 

“I don’t know anything about taking care of a bitty” she admitted. 

“Well you are off to a good start. Don’t worry, I have pamphlets and if you have any questions I will be more than happy to help.” She promised her feathers coming up to cup this precious human’s face. Who pulled off something so utterly miraculous, “You are a compassionate and precious Soul.” She said and leaned forward wrapping the human in soft feathered wings of a tight hug. 

Still holding the little bitty in one hand the girl hugged the monster back, and Lori could feel tears against her shoulder. 

Lori decided she was going to do everything she could to protect these two lives.


End file.
